Gas-measuring systems and gas-measuring devices are used for industrial gas measurement and to protect persons who are present in areas or rooms from hazards to health and life. In an industrial environment, such as the petrochemical industry, refineries, chemical industry, industrial gas measurement is significant for monitoring explosive or toxic gases or vapors. Both mobile and stationary devices are used. Combinations of mobile or stationary devices are also used to make it possible to perform measurements of gas concentrations or gas analyses in storage tanks, boreholes or silos. Thus, a combination of a mobile gas-measuring device with a charging station for supplying electrical energy as well as with a pump is known from DE 10 2005 045 272 B4. It is thus possible to also use mobile gas-measuring devices for measuring gas concentrations in a drawing shaft or in a borehole by the gas concentration being able to be fed by means of the pump via a long flexible tube from the borehole to the surface to the mobile gas-measuring device. The control of the pump with the start of feeding, the flow rate and further operating properties of the pump is performed by the mobile gas-measuring device or the control thereof. Such a combination of devices is well suited for a temporary, mobile use. Drawbacks arise for continuous use in terms of a continuous power supply. In addition, integration in a data network for forwarding measured values and alarms is relatively complicated, because this would basically have to be performed or configured anew for each temporary mobile use. Also, only a wireless variant could meaningfully be used as a data network in such a configuration, because the necessary network infrastructure is not present for the combination of gas-measuring devices and pump in each industrial plant.
Stationary gas-measuring devices are often and usually distributed as a plurality of sensor units for gas measurement over a plurality of rooms or larger areas in industrial plants. U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,497 B1 describes a gas-measuring system, which is configured to connect a plurality of sensors to a central analysis unit. The sensors may be connected via a universal serial bus (USB).
A gas sensor with an adapter is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,854 B2. The adapter is configured for connecting a flexible tube. It is possible via this flexible tube to bring gas from a remotely located measurement location or a measuring gas or a calibrating gas to the gas sensor. Measuring gas or calibrating gas can thus be fed, for example, by means of a feed pump.
Gas-measuring systems comprising a gas sensor and a gas generator are known from WO 199 917 110 A1 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 7,645,376. Such combinations of gas generators and gas sensors make it possible to test the measuring properties of the gas sensors, especially to determine whether the gas sensor responds sensitively to the admission of a predefined measuring gas concentration.
There is a need, especially for already existing plants or installations of gas-measuring systems, to test the ability of the gas sensors to operate during the operation. In particular, there is a need to be able to test the gas sensors without removing or disassembling the gas sensors at the particular measurement location, which is necessary in the plant.